Spanish banking group Banco Santander is set to shed 450 branches in Spain in a bid to cut costs and ramp up its focus on digital banking.
The affected branches represent 13% of the bank’s 3,467 branches in Spain.
Go deeper with GlobalData
"Spain’s financial sector is confronting a period of great change. The current economic context, greater regulatory requirements and the evolution of client behavior toward new technology makes it necessary to move more quickly in our commercial transformation," Santander Spain country head Rami Aboukhair said in the memo.
The move will mainly affect smaller branches, most of which employ less than four staff.
Aboukhair said that shrinking its smaller branch network would enable the bank to focus on larger and more efficient branches, adding that plans are on to open 350 such branches in 2016.
Following the closure, some employees will be reassigned while others are expected to be made redundant, the bank stated.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData
